I'd just gotten to sleep when the hair on the back of my neck stood up and danced. Usually this meant that someone was standing in my personal space, and the consequences were often violent. Groaning deeply, I blinked blearily, trying to keep my eyes closed as much as possible while still glaring at whoever woke me. I expected to see a blur at the edge of the mountainous bed. Instead, mere inches from my own, a pair of blue eyes stared unflinchingly back at me. Completely unnerved, I yelped and jumped. Unfortunately, I was at the edge of the bed, so my jump toppled me onto the floor in a massive knotted tangle of sheets with a thump. Another thump echoed a second later on the opposite side of the bed. Muttered curses flew wildly from where I lay, but peals of roaring laughter danced across the room towards me.
Still grumbling as I struggled to untwine my appendages from the snarled sheets, I bellowed, "Carter! What on earth could you possibly want at this time of night?"
Swallowing the last of his chortles, Carter gleefully glanced around the end of the bed and replied, "Oh…nothing." His euphoric expression paled as he caught my hostile scowl full on. "We've been summoned to the throne room," he amended quickly, with a sheepish apologetic smile. I rolled my eyes—my trademark—and threw the rest of the sheets off. I pulled my hair into a braid, then stood up and sighed, "All right. Let's go."
Carter grinned yet again, but with a speculative expression, and not entirely sure why, I felt self-conscious. I glanced down at myself quickly, making sure I hadn't forgotten anything vital. Satisfied with my appearance, I scowled some more and demanded, "Well? What?" He stared at me a moment longer before softly repeating, "Oh…nothing." Not knowing how to respond, I settled for a suspicious growl and stalked stiffly out of the room.
Logan was waiting for us in the hall. He too grinned when he saw me and teased, "Good morning sunshine!" I stuck my tongue out. He laughed, unfazed, and fell in step beside me. As the three of us walked, my grumpiness began to wear off. My mind shook off the cobwebs of sleep. The more alert I became, the more my gut told me that something was wrong. We came to the stairway, and the boys started down in, taking two or three steps at a time, racing to the bottom. I slowed and stopped about halfway down. Realizing I was no longer between them, Carter and Logan turned to look for me. Logan's eyebrows scrunched together as he looked up at me, confused. He asked, "What's the matter?" His concern rang out in his voice, and I smiled a little hearing it. But the smile only lasted a second before my troubled expression returned. I stared past them, down the long hallway to the doors of the great hall. "Something doesn't feel right," I whispered. I pulled my gaze back to my two friends and saw that I had their full attention.
"This is wrong," I explained, descending the stairs quickly. "Why would the king want to see us in the middle of the night? It doesn't make any sense. No one has meetings at this time of night."
Logan and Carter looked at each other, and I bristled, expecting an exasperated "Girls!" look. Instead, puzzlement crossed their faces, and still facing each other, Ben slowly said, "You know…we didn't think about that."
I smiled wryly at this, and asked sarcastically, "And would the reason for not wondering that be the fact that you were too thrilled about waking me up?"
This time it was Logan who grinned gleefully, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a blush creep up Carter's neck and grace his cheek for a moment. We continued down the hall once more, teasing and joking until we had almost reached the doors.
Suddenly, voices echoed down the hallway, coming closer. After a moment of listening, I scowled. The grating rasp of the duke's voice instantly brought a vile taste to my mouth, making me want to spit. Carter and Logan recognized the duke too, and slipped into the shadows. I remained in the middle of the hall, hands on my hips, stubbornly glaring towards the noise. Carter groaned angrily before latching onto my arm and speedily yanking me back into the darkness.
The forms of the duke and his assistant melted out of the blackness, and the two walked briskly toward our dismally inadequate hiding spot. They were locked in a heated and quiet debate, but that did not reassure us. Carter hissed, "They'll see us for sure." Logan nodded once, and the suit of armor next to him seemed to catch his attention. He snatched the cloak from its metal shoulders and swung it onto his own. Carter was seconds behind him, and soon the two were no more recognizable than any other royal guard. They stood motionless and silent, and I sighed with relief. We were off the hook. Suddenly, Logan broke his frozen stance and stared back at me, panic-stricken. A cold shiver ran down my spine; what about me? For once, I was out of ideas. I looked around for something to disguise myself with. However, seeing as how girls were not currently in the castle's employ as guards, nothing presented itself. With my arch-nemesis mere feet away, Carter whispered hurriedly, "Piper, I've got an idea, but you've got to trust me!" The fire in his eyes filled my chest with a different sort of panic, and I felt myself nod jerkily in response to his request. Glancing one last time down the hall, Carter stepped around the now naked suit of armor and faced me. His blue eyes never left mine as he gently slid one hand onto my neck and pushed me back against the wall. My heart beat a violent tattoo, and I was sure you could hear it ten miles away, let alone the shrinking ten feet that separated us from Karnoz. I chanced a glance in the duke's direction before returning my gaze to Carter. The fire in his blue eyes sent simultaneous waves of terror and exhilaration rushing over me. He closed the distance between us quickly; the tip of his nose bumped mine, and he hesitated. Feeling as though something inside me was about to burst, I came the rest of the way.
I'd never kissed like this. It filled me entirely, though with what I wasn't sure. Time and place hardly existed anymore, their very concepts seemingly erased from existance. Instead, there was this incredible energy that enthralled and surrounded me. I wasn't just myself anymore. The physical barriers that housed my soul evaporated, and I was everything and nothing all at once.
Then suddenly, the feeling was gone. I blinked a few times, trying to gain a sense of my surroundings. I was dazed and weak, as if I was just getting over a horrible illness. And yet, at the same time, I'd never felt more alive. My senses were in overdrive, and I noticed smell and the feel of the cool night air more pungently than ever. It was the strangest sensation and it efficiently kept me quiet and leaning against the wall in the shadows.
The first thing I recognized was Carter's back. I heard, "We cannot tolerate this kind of irresponsibility and lack of respect for those uniforms you are wearing." Karnoz sounded bored with his speech. giving the impression that he'd said the same thing to each and every guard ever in the employ of the castle. Logan and Carter did their best to look embarrassed and repentant as the mumbled their apologies.
